Successor to East Germany’s Ruling Communist Party Wins in State of Thuringia

BERLIN—A quarter-of-a-century after the Berlin Wall fell, the successor to East Germany’s ruling party claimed its biggest political prize on Friday when it secured its first state governorship in the reunified country.

The election of The Left party’s Bodo Ramelow as premier of Thuringia, with a razor-thin majority of one vote in the 91-seat state assembly, could become a template for Germany and herald a shift to the left after almost a decade of conservative-led national governments, analysts and politicians said.